(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
There may be acts that are more indecent than destroying a homeless person’s shelter, but shredding the tents of homeless people living under a fucking freeway and rifling through what pathetically meager belongings and comforts they rely upon is really kicking them when they are down and putting the boot to the neck of an already beleaguered humanity. Such mindlessly horrific coercion of the weak and dislocated by the powers that be, in this case, local “peace officers,” is really emblematic of what our country has become. First, alienate people and push them to the fringes of society, take away their jobs and homes, then destroy any remaining belongings and remnants of social support they have at the edge of life itself. I’m sure many more of us will be enjoying such fruits of economic apartheid in the years to come.
The cops could have instead, and more humanely, given them “the bum’s rush.” It would have been more decent. Instead they explicitly and in detail destroyed what little property the homeless owned. This is what “property rights” and “ownership society” assholes believe in the end. I got my house, my fat-ass pension. Fuck you. I don’t even want your shit. I just want to destroy you for bringing down my property values and looking different than me.
Good luck with your houses and kick-ass pensions now, coppers. Your equivalent Wall Street charlatan enforcers just shredded both your pensions and homes, just as you did to the homeless. You may well be the last on the state and municipal chopping blocks, but you’re as fucked as the bums you just fucked over.
P.S. I don’t hate cops. One of my brothers is a cop. I know something about their stressors and adversities, hence why they tend to become insular and self-protective amongst themselves, “the boys in blue,” and adversarial against “others.” “Us versus Them” is only human. After all, we’re only ordinary “men.” Murder and theft are also “only human,” but as humans, we don’t accept every capacity of Nature as inevitable. That’s why we aspire to having laws and enforcers. However, if it is legal to destroy a homeless person’s personal property, that of someone without a true home or pension, then let’s hope that law applies equally to people with homes and pensions. Let that kind of lawfulness reign equally supreme. There but for fortune go I, and all that. It’s really rudimentary humanism.
Fittingly, the failure to enforce humane laws comes around to bite everyone in the ass.
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to spend a couple of years under a bridge. Geithner, Obama, Paulson, Blankfein, Fuld et al…until results are manifest.
… that’s wretched.
I have been seeing more and more homeless when we go out. I hesitate to photograph because I feel that if their locations were known, this sort of thing would happen. They took down the tent city on an undeveloped area by the railroad bridge crossing the American river near downtown, last year in Sacramento, after Oprah did her show, but the new overnight- only shelter they were supposed to go to was too far away from the social services support area that fed them, so many of them scattered into the parks. They’re there, but they’re not there. They’re everywhere. The local churches are providing safe shelter at night to sleep for the families but trying to get the city to allow a safe campground, which of course they won’t do.
one of the tents being dismantled. People trying to make a tent under a bridge home.
There will always be protection for the Fulds and Blankfeins of the world –
This is the postshrub world. As much as I disagree with Obama’s corporate policies – we musn’t forget that the people who led us into two wars and nonregulation of our financial systems are warm and cozy in their lovely homes.
“low level” officers are not the problem here – it’s the system. If you are told to do this and you have a family – you probably do it. And yes – they will go after government pensions – but first they’ll kill off Medicare and SS. They need the low levelers to protect them.
Well, I will absolutely never spend a single cent within the city limits of St. Petersburg, Florida, short of learning that this video was a complete hoax or that their policy has been turned around 180 degrees.
In my mind, they have joined the ranks of Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart, Monsanto, and other usual suspects. And don’t forget to include Mt. Vernon, Washington, proud home of Glenn Beck on this list. And most national parks now allow visitors to carry loaded weapons, provided that applicable state laws do not prohibit same.
Speaking of Mt. Vernon, the mayor did present Glenn Beck with the key to the city, as proudly proclaimed in the local newspaper. You can view the article here. The event was spoofed in the following brief video…
Although this provides but scant, cold comfort, every development like this makes the task of choosing a travel destination just a little easier.
Remarkably, this video from St. Petersburg was posted on youtube last summer, and so far has had only 117 views, numbers that are not likely to cause concern for the officials of St. Petersburg…yet.
Without revealing my hand, I’ve sent an e-mail message to the Mayor of St. Petersburg, indicating that there are several attractions in his city that I’ve like to visit next winter (including the Salvador Dali Museum, Florida Holocaust Museum, Florida International Museum, BayWalk, etc.), but am not sure what to make of this video. I’ve asked him to help me make sense of it as his explanation may help me to better formulate future travel plans. If interested, you can e-mail him at: [email protected]
Anyone care to lay odds on the likelihood of a response?
After world war two the winners said to the defendants in both Nuremberg and Japan ‘I was only following orders’ was not a defense. Here we have bone headed ‘peace officers’ following somebodies orders which may or may not be illegal but are with out a doubt immoral. I wonder if these assholes have swastikas tattooed on their hearts?
‘To protect and serve’ HaHaHa serve who, protect what. The wealthy white.
The POTB in this nation and many others are off the hook. Though I’m not a conspiracy type I cant help but note that the movers and shakers have the entire game rigged and these poor folk, living in tents and barely surviving in the wealthiest nation on earth are for lack of a better word disposable. The elite Party aparatchik, masters of the universe have deamed it Okay to fuck us all.
Beware, the roundups arent to far away. Hell we already have illegal survailance, random mandatory ID checks, imprisonment without trial and all the other stuff we here talk about.
Arrrggghhh!!!!
authorities going to do when those they are preying upon are going to rise up against them in frustration? Are they so certain the number of officers is enough to stem the rising tide of desperation that I can see happening probably by the end of summer if not sooner? This has to be the most asinine clueless society on the face of the planet to not see that it will be acts like this that will spark violence.
…that not living in compliance with the social norms and standards is a crime punishable not by law, but by destroying into disappearance? Don’t you understand that basic value of civilization? There are no reasons, no excuses, and no protections under the law!!!! …for those who do not conform, no matter what has happened to them!!!…
Homeless camp in a field a block from where I live. Cops came in and gave ’em 10 minutes to clear out. Well, most were out rooting through the recycle bins so never got the notice. 10 minutes passed and bulldozers just rolled over everything. Bastards. Fucking bastards.
Welcome, we’re now among all the places and peoples that Teh Serious Folks want us to pretend don’t matter.
What would happen if all those people were willing to march on city hall and be arrested?
Us using the poor as cannon fodder? Not if they wanted to. It’s called fighting back. But maybe too risky.
Suppose something else. Suppose there was an organization that was willing to put up bail and legal defense and do nationwide publicity. And the poor in places like St. Petersburg knew of its existence because it was effectively publicized.
Would they be willing to take action then?
it is a crime to be poor.
These are not ALL “crazies” and probably not even close!
Please tell me what you would do if you lost your job, your spouse, if you have one, lost his/her job, loss of healthcare insurance, kids in school, whatever savings used up to prevent the inevitable, no jobs to be had, mortgage unpaid, ultimate foreclosure and destitution?
The cops have been enabled by the Military Commission Act, and the Emergency Acts of the Bush Adm., as every other person of some power, in a higher to lower level position and, of course, since our government can do whatever, I suppose municipalities and their public servants believe the same.
But it is ALL indicative of the utter depravation and callous of this country to treat people so inhumanely, who are hanging on by a “thread.” And, as much continues on the same path, you and I will be joining these very people, living in tents. What will they do to a mass of people living in tents? Destroy everyone’s tents? It just keeps on gettin’ sicker!
My heart goes out to those poor souls who have lost what little they could call “home.” What is to become of them with everything they have destroyed?
What an utterly hateful and inhumane society. But, see, “waterboarding” is O.K.!